Recommended Reading for 26 July 2010

Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language and ideas of varying intensity. Opinions expressed in the articles may not reflect the opinions held by the compiler of the post and links are provided as topics of interest and exploration only. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.

Explanations are hard to come by. The suicides could have nothing – or everything – to do with the victims’ military service.

“It is the separation from our families, it is the lack of a support structure in our personal lives sometimes, financial challenges, relationships – we know that,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a recent talk about the suicide problem to troops in South Korea.

Those interviewed have been displaced by mass violence, ranging from the Holocaust to the Rwandan and Cambodian genocides, to political violence in Haiti, Latin America and South Asia. The project hopes that the act of listening intently to how these survivors speak of their memories, may bring us to an understanding of what these experiences mean to them and how they can be retold. Recording their process of remembering and telling will also help us better understand the impact of mass violence and displacement on those who have sought refuge in Montreal and the ways in which their sense of home and community has been affected.

Through the practice of oral history, Life Stories intends to create cultural and historical materials for Montreal’s diverse communities, to foster collaboration and partnership between them, to develop interdisciplinary pedagogical tools and to make a significant, original contribution to the preservation of historical memory in Canada, by raising questions about the long-term repercussions of crimes against humanity.”

As an extra bonus for the young people, Paralympian Simon Jackson, plus tandem pilot Olympian Craig MacLean, GB Wheelchair Rugby Player Michael Kerr and Scotland CP Football captain Jonathan Paterson attended the event. They also participated in a Q & A session. This offered the youngsters an opportunity to engage with the established performance athletes and receive tips about their personal involvement in disability sport. Fraser Penman, a pupil from Uddingston Grammar School, was delighted with his opportunity to speak to a Paralympic champion. “It was great to talk to Simon,” said 15-year-old Penman. “He gave me the address to his website because I was interested in maybe trying to get involved with judo.”

If South Hadley and other Massachusetts schools are really serious about instituting anti-bullying programs, they need to look further than research on teenage psychology. They need to look at a culture that sexualizes women at an extremely young age and then castigates them for their sexuality, and that consistently engages in the victim-blaming of girls and women.

A high-schooler interviewed for Bazelon’s story said it best: “The girls found out she’d been with the boys, and true to high-school girls, they got mad at the girl instead of the boyfriend.” This isn’t just “normal” behavior for high school girls. It is something taught by our media and our society, and something that has been largely ignored in the case of Phoebe Prince.

If you’re on Delicious, feel free to tag entries ‘disfem’ or ‘disfeminists,’ or ‘for:feminists’ to bring them to our attention! Link recommendations can also be emailed to recreading[@]disabledfeminists[.]com

About Ouyang Dan

is an extremely proggy-liberal, formerly single mommy, Native American, invisibly disabled, U.S. Navy Veteran, social justice activist and aspiring freelance writer currently living in South Korea on Uncle Sam's dime. She has a super human tolerance for caffeine and chocolate and believes she should use those powers for good. She said should.
She is not a concise person, and sometimes comes on a little aggressively in comments. Sometimes her right arm still twitches when military brass walks past her, but she would rather be reading YA Lit or pwning n00bs.
She can be found being cliche about music, overthinking pop culture, and grumbling about whatever else suits her fancy at her personal website, random babble.... She also writes about military issues for Change.org's Women's Rights blog.
If you have something interesting to say email her at ouyangdan [at] disabledfeminists [dot] com. Lawyers in Italy looking to hold lottery winnings in her bank account may wait longer for reply.
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One thought on “Recommended Reading for 26 July 2010”

So wait… are they saying in that article that because Phoebe Prince was already depressed that the bullies should face no, or lesser, charges?! As someone who was nearly bullied into suicide in high school (including by a teacher who admitted – to my mom and the principal – to starting a nasty rumor about me), that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Make an example out of these bullies like they failed to do in Megan Meier’s case. Make these kids (and adults) think twice about bullying others.